The 3 W’s for Shocking Your Swimming Pool and Keeping It Clean

Are you new to swimming pool care? We still want to give you advice on how to shock your pool.

For newbies, the word shock may come as a surprise. Let’s take a look at the three W’s of how to keep your pool clean by “shocking” it:

What Is A Pool Shock?

In swimming pool lingo, a pool shock is adding chlorine or non-chlorine to clean your pool and destroy any contaminants in the water. The idea is to raise chlorine levels to where it destroys any algae or bacteria growing in your swimming pool.

There are two types of pool shock, and it has to do with which chlorine you are going to use:

Chlorine Shock

You need to raise it to extremely high levels to destroy algae and other contaminants found in the water. Usually, the chlorine shock goes up to a 10ppm level. The downside of this type of cleaning is that you can’t go into the pool immediately, and you need to wait until the standards are between 3ppm and 4ppm before using it. Test your water and make sure that is ready for use.

Non-Chorine Shock

This usually uses potassium monopersulfate, excellent to oxidize contaminants but it doesn’t kill bacteria. You don’t need to wait long periods of time before you can begin using the swimming pool. Some experts say that these types of shocks don’t take longer than 15 minutes, but is better to do it near evening time and use it the following morning.

Why Do You Need to Shock?

Every time humans enter the water, they bring organics and contaminants; including sweat, saliva, skin cells, body lotions, urine and many other elements. Leaves and dirt provided by Mother Nature also go into the pool or diluted water when it rains.

The contaminants work as a food source for bacteria and algae to grow and turns your water green. Some sanitizers will kill bacteria and algae growing in the pool, and breaking down contaminants, and eliminate from the water.

When Should You Shock?

Surprisingly, you may not need to shock the pool if you’re constantly taking care of your pool. But during the winter months, most swimming pool owners don’t spend time checking the chemical levels in their oasis unless you have a heating system for your oasis.

No matter how often you use it during the summer, make sure to keep the proper levels of chlorine at all times. If they go too low, you may need to shock to bring the levels up to standard. And even if the maintenance is constant, there are other reasons why you should practice pool shocking. Some of the most common times are:

• After heavy pool use
• After a massive rain or windstorm
• After a water change

The easy way to clean your pool is by doing a shock. However, if you keep testing the water and maintain it in proper balance, you don’t need to do the procedure very often.